Return to The Past: The Lightning Thief
by MusicLover2212
Summary: Percy and the gang have been sent back in time to read the PJO seires and the HoO series. What will happen? Read on to find out! I enjoy reading these kinds of stories a lot so I decided to start my own. Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson as much as I would like to. but oh well.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! What's Up? I just wanted to write this story so I am. I always liked the reading the books stories so I decided to write one. I got the idea to have this take place after TLO but before TLH and have the people from HoO come in from Life's A Happy Song. Hope you like it.**

**~MusicLover2212**

Chapter 1**(A/n right now I'm going to keep it in third person POV but maybe later I'll do it from people's POV)**

It was a peaceful day at Camp Half Blood, well as peaceful as it could get at camp.

The hunters had come to visit as a sort of break after winning the war. Thalia was chasing Percy around camp. He had dumped water on her this morning and had been trying to get him for three hours.

Annabeth and Nico were bemusedly wondering if they should interfere or not. They decided not to. This was quality entertainment. Percy and Thalia were just about to pass by them. They both stopped for a moment to catch their breath. But, before they could continue they were engulfed by a bright blue light.

When everything stopped spinning they found themselves in Olympus. The Olympus before Annabeth had redesigned it.

WHO ARE YOU! Zeus thundered**( A/n sorry I had to get that out :D)**

"You- you don't recognize us?" said a very confused Thalia.

"Why does Olympus look so old?" Percy asked.

"Wait hold on I think I- anyways what year is it?" she asked.

"2000" the gods replied.

"That explains it, we're from 2010" Nico said.

Then suddenly there was a flash of light and a note drifted down from the ceiling. Zeus snatched the note out of the air. It said:

_Dear gods and demigods,_

_We have decided that these heroes return from the future to read books about what happens in the future or their past. There are a total of 10 books to be read. These demigods already know what happens in the first 5 books but not in the last 5. We may be sending more people so be prepared. Also the demigods cannot leave until all the books are finished unless we decide to send them back. The time periods that they have come from have been frozen, so no one will be wondering where they have gone._

_-The Fates_

Then a box appeared on Zeus' lap. He opened it up. "The names of books are, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian. Why do you look so pale?" he interrupted himself , because Percy had turned the color of paper.

"Never mind, what are the names of the rest of the books," Percy said hastily.

Zeus continued, "The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades and one unnamed book."

"An unnamed book?" asked Athena.

"Yes the entire book is blank"he replied.

"OK now who wants to read first" said Poseidon.

"I will" Percy said. He opened up the book to the first chapter.

"**I accidentally vaporize my pre-algebra teacher" **he read aloud.

**How was it? Any good? Should I bother to continue? Please tell me! Read and Review.**

**Quote of the Chapter:**

** Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.**  
**-Albert Einstein (at first I couldn't believe it was Einstein :D)**

**~MusicLover2212**


	2. I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra

**Hey! Sorry for the late update. I had so much homework it wasn't even funny. Also I had to type up the whole chapter which wasn't too bad I was just kind of time consuming. Especially since I had to do like four projects. Also, for the House of Hades there might be slower updates but not by much. Again with the idea of my parents being really strict about school (I'm an asian, what are you going to do?)I'll try to update both of my stories as often as possible. Now remember, I sadly do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. Also, I just started reading the Kane Chronicles and I have to say that The Red Pyramid was pretty good. After I finish this series I really want to start the Divergent Trilogy. The thing with me is I never actually read one Read and Review!**

* * *

****Chapter 1**  
****"**Wait!" Zeus ordered." We don't know who you are, introduce yourselves."**  
**The demigods looked at each other._Sure _they thought _might as well_. The big three kids nodded at Annabeth to go first.**  
****"**I am Annabeth Chase, lord. Daugher of Athena." Athena smiled at her daughter, sure she would make her proud.**  
**Thalia stepped up next. "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus luitenint of Artemis." Hades and Poseidon look pissed.**(A/N The big three know about Thalia and Nico, they just don't like them)****  
**Nico stepped up "Nico DiAngelo, son of Hades." Poseidon still looked pissed.**  
**Finally Percy came forward " Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." **  
****"**POSIDON! YOU BROKE THE OATH!" Zeus screamed with rage. **  
****"**You broke the oath too, brother. You don't see me trying to kill her." he replied pointing at Thalia.**  
****"**Okay. We're illeagal we know. You can argue about this after we finish the books. Maybe by then you'll change your opinions on us." The children of the big three said.**  
**The gods looked like they wanted to argue but they let Percy begin reading.****

**I accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher****  
****Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.******

Nico snorted,"Who does?" he asked.**  
**The gods looked down at this.****

**Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.****  
****Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.******

The demigods winced. Percy was rigt. Most of them did get killed very painfully.****

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.****  
****But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.****  
****Don't say I didn't warn you.****  
****My name is Percy Jackson.******

"Great now all of you are going to hear my thoughts" Percy groaned. Thalia and Nico chuckled evily. They were pretty sure that Percy's thoughts were going to get him into trouble some people in the room.****

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.****  
****Am I a troubled kid?****  
**"Yes!" chorused Annabeth, Nico and Thaila.**  
**"What wonderful friends I have," Percy grumbled.****

**Yeah. You could say that.******

"HA! He even admits it." Thalia said gleefully.****

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.******

"That sounds very interesting" said Athena.**  
**"No it doesn' sounds like tourture." said Posedion****

**I know—it sounds like torture.******

"Wow. That's creepy" said Hermes.****

**Most Yancy field trips were.****  
****But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.****  
****Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.******

**"**Is that Chiron?" asked Annabeth.**  
****"**Yeah, it is." Percy replied**  
**.**  
****You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.******

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.******

All of the demigods snorted at this. The gods, noticing them snort asked." What's so funny?"****

Thalia answered, "Well you see Percy is a magnet for trouble. It follows him wherever he goes. Half the time it's not even his fault."****

Once everyone had stopped laughing Percy continued.**  
****  
****Boy, was I wrong.****  
****See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.******

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.****  
**Everyone burst into laughter here. **  
****"**Dude, you're awesome," said Hermes between laughs.**  
****And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.****  
****"**Please tell us more later," begged Apollo and Hermes.****

**This trip, I was determined to be good.****  
****All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.******

**"**What kind of person has peanut butter with ketchup? That's just plain disgusting." said Thalia. ****

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.******

**"**I'd love to see the look on Grover's face if he heard that." Nico said.****

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.******

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.****  
****"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.******

**"**Do it!" Screamed Ares. He was getting incredibly bored with the book.****

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."******

**"**Does he really like it? I can't stand the stuff, it's just disgusting." Aphrodite said.****

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.****  
****"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.******

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me."You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."****  
****Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.****  
**Posedion turned pale._What kind of danger was his son going to end up in? _****

Seeing his father's expression Percy continued reading.****

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.****  
****He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.****  
****It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.******

**"**Longer, sea spawn." Athena said irritatedly._How could someone be as stupid as him?_****

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.******

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.******

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.******

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until , I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said,"You're absolutely right."******

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.******

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said,"Will you shut up?"****  
****It came out louder than I meant it to.******

**"**Of course it did" said Thalia.****

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.****  
****"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"****  
****My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."****  
****Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"****  
****  
**Nico laughed, "Right like Percy would actually know what the picture was."**  
****"**For your information Nico, I did know what it was so I would keep your mouth shut." Percy shot back.**  
****"**Oooh! BURN!" Ares yelled.****

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"******

The elder gods shuddered. That was not a pleasant experience.****

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because …"****  
****"Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"******

**"**GOD!" all the gods shouted. **  
****"**It was just a mistake. Chiron corrected me. Besides, I know the difference now anyway." Percy said quickly. Trying not to get vaporized.****

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.******

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"****  
****"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.******

**"**That really was Eew," Demeter said. Everyone looked at her weridly. "What," she said defensivly " it was!"****

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."******

**"**The biggest fight of the millenia and he sums it up into a paragraph!?" Athena said incredelously.**  
****"**Yep. That's Percy for you." said Thalia, "annoying but funny at the same time"**  
****"**Awwwww thanks Thalia," Said Percy.**  
****"**And there's the annoying," she sighed.****

**Some snickers from the group.******

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend,"Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"****  
****"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"******

**"**Busted" said Nico.****

**"Busted," Grover muttered.******

**"**Haha. You think like Grover," Thalia said.****

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.******

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.******

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."******

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed."Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"******

**"**Chiron is terrible at changing the subject," said Apollo, shaking his head.****

**he class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.******

**"**That's because they are doofuses." Atremis said.****

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."****  
****I knew that was coming.****  
****I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"****  
****Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.******

**"**I don't like you but I have to admit that you are very observant," Zeus said.****

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.****  
****"About the Titans?"****  
****"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."****  
****"Oh."****  
****"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."****  
****I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.******

**"**He had a good reason. If hadn't pushed you so hard. Who knows what stupid things you would have done," Athena said rudely.**  
**Percy looked like he wanted to reply sarcastically but he simply continued reading.****

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.******

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.******

**"**He probably had," said Hades.****

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.******

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.******

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas.******

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.******

**"**Besides the usual nonsense, what are you two arguing about?" Hera said. They shrugged. She turned to the demigods. "What are they fighting about?"****

**"**We can't tell." said Annabeth. Hera humphed and Percy continued to read.****

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.******

**"**She your kid Hermes?" asked Aphrodite.**  
****"**Nah, she's completely mortal." he responded.****

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.****  
****"Detention?" Grover asked.****  
****"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."******

**"**Serious understatement," said Nico.**  
****"**Shut up Nico," said the before mentioned un-genius.**  
****"**Shutting up."****

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"******

Everyone burst out laughing.****

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.****  
****I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.******

**"**See the boy loves him mother." said Hera.**  
****"**Well maybe we would love you if you weren't such a terrible mother," said Hephestus and Ares. **  
****"**I am not a terrible mother!" Hera shouted.**  
****I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.****"**Because you didn't throw me off a mountain or anything," Hephaestus responded sarcastically.****

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.******

**"**That's disgusting," Aphrodite commented.****

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.****  
****  
****"**Liquid cheetos?" asked Thalia.**  
****"**Hey, they're a bright orange." Said Percy.**  
****"**Good point."****

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.******

**"**Does counting to ten even work?" Apollo asked?**  
****"**Nope" Percy responded.****

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"****  
****Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.****  
****Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"****  
****"-the water-"****  
****"-like it grabbed her-"******

**"**Okay, even I have to admit that's pretty cool," said Thalia.****

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.****  
****As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"****  
****"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."******

**"**NO!," yelled Hermes, "You should never guess you punisment!"****

**That wasn't the right thing to say.******

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.****  
****"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."****  
****I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.****  
****She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.****  
****"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.****  
****"But-"****  
****"You-will-stay-here."****  
****Grover looked at me desperately.****  
****"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."****  
****"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."****  
****Nancy Bobofit smirked.****  
****I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.****  
****  
****"**Ugh, that is such a freaky glare it's not even funny." Said Thalia.****

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.****  
****How'd she get there so fast?****  
****I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.****  
****I wasn't so sure.****  
****I went after Mrs. Dodds.****  
****Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.****  
****I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.****  
****Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.****  
****But apparently that wasn't the plan.******

**"**Obviously not," said Annabeth.****

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman for us, the gallery was . Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.****  
****Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…******

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.******

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."******

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket."Did you really think you would get away with it?"****  
****"**Get away with what?" asked Artemis.**  
****"**We can't tell" said Nico, in a sing-songy voice.****

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.****  
****She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.****  
****I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."****  
****Thunder shook the building.****  
****"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."****  
****I didn't know what she was talking about.****  
****All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.******

**"**Dude, you are awesome!" said Apollo and Hermes, laughing their heads off.**  
****  
****"Well?" she demanded.****  
****"Ma'am, I don't…"****  
****"Your time is up," she hissed.****  
****Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.******

**"**A FURY!" Poseidon shouted.**  
****"**I wouldn't have sent the fury without reason brother, perhaps the boy has done something wrong." Hades replied camly.**  
****"**Oh, and you sent monsters after my daughter for what reason exactly?" Zeus said testily.****

The three of them began arguing. The didn't stop untill Hera bellowed, "SILENCE! You three shall stop arguing for the rest of this chapter. Understood?"**  
****"**Yes," they said meekly.****

**Then things got even stranger.****  
****Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.****  
****"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.****  
****Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.****  
****With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.****  
****Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.****  
****My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.****  
****She snarled, "Die, honey!"****  
****And she flew straight at me.****  
****Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.******

**"**How is that natural?" Athena asked.****

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!******

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.****  
****I was alone.****  
****There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.****  
****Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.******

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.****  
****Had I imagined the whole thing?****  
****I went back outside.****  
****It had started to rain.****  
****Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."****  
****  
****"**Who?" Poseidon wondered.****

**I said, "Who?"******

**"**Again, creepy."****

**"Our teacher. Duh!"****  
****I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.****  
****She just rolled her eyes and turned away.****  
****I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.****  
****He said, "Who?"****  
****But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.******

**"**Grover is terrible liar," said Percy.****

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."****  
****Thunder boomed overhead.****  
****I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.****  
****I went over to him.****  
****He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."****  
****I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.****  
****"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"****  
****He stared at me blankly. "Who?"****  
****"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."****  
****He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"******

**"**Chiron is such a great liar," said Percy, "Honestly I was so confused. Anyway, that's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read the next one?"****

**"**I will" said Nico, but before he could begin a bright light filled the room.****

**Ooh, cliffy. Well, not really but oh well. I wasn't really in the mood to leave you hanging. This was such a long chapter. 13 pages on google docs 10 font and over 4,000 words. Anyway I hope you liked it! Read and Review!****  
****~MusicLover2212**


	3. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

**Hey! What's up? I know that it's been like 4 months , but I consider this a side story.**

**I think this is pretty much edited and if it's not well, I really don't care. I have writer's block for HoH and I think I might discontinue the story (which I something I swore I wouldn't do) because there's no way I can finish it before October 8. I will try to finish as much as possible before then, but soon after that I'll take that story down. **

**That's part of the reason why I updated this, because I'm so mad at myself for be a lazy idiot. Anyway, onto the story.**

**Hope you like it!**

**~MusicLover2212**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Hey! Guys! What's up?" said Thalia.

"Hey, do you guys have any idea what we're doing here?" the shorter girl said.

"We're reading books about Kelp Head's life," Thalia said. "Oh, by the way, you may want to introduce yourselves before one of them blows their top." she guestured to the gods who seemed to be losing their patience quickly.

Immortal Deities these days, right?

The shorter of the two similar boys stepped forward, spreading his arms in a grand gesture saying "I'm Conner,"

"I'm Travis," the other one said, repeating his motions.

"And we are the Stoll brothers!" they said together.

The shorter one, Conner, stepped forward and said "Also children of Hermes"

"I'm Katie Gardner. Daughter of Demeter," said the shorter girl. Demeter smiled.

"Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares, skater of the drakon." proclaimed the beefy girl, somewhat prideful.

"Now that that's done, Death Breath, start reading." Thalia ordered.

"Bossy much?" Percy muttered under his breath.

"**Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of Death**" Nico read.

"Death?" Poseidon questioned. Nobody bothered answering him.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"You are psycho" said Connor.

"You shouldn't be talking." Percy replied.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"How much do you want to bet that it was Grover who gave it away?" Hermes said to Apollo.

"No way. Even I'm not stupid enough to make that bet." Apollo said.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"See, told you," Apollo said.

"You didn't say anything, idiot," Artemis said.

"Well, I was thinking it," Apollo said victoriously. Artemis rolled her eyes.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

The half-bloods cringed. They all had nightmares.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"What are you two arguing about now?" Hera said tiredly.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Annabeth and Athena looked aghast.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Good. Being in a fight never hurt anybody." Ares said. Nobody bothered to correct him.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Everyone laughed.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means-"" Annabeth began, but Connor cut her off.

"It's funnier when you don't know."

She gave him a dirty look**.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Mama's boy" Clarisse muttered.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Paul gambles?" Thalia asked.

"No, this is my first stepfather," Percy said.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.**

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"That's pretty deep, Kelp Head." Thalia said slightly surpriesed.

""Are you calling me shallow?" Percy questioned.

"Maybe I am,"

Before Percy could reply though, Nico continued.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good. He's right" Athena told Percy.

"I know, this already happened." Percy replied. Athena glared at him, not liking being correctted.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"Percy, Percy," Connor said shaking his head.

"Don't go hurting poor, innocent books," Travis reprimanded.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

"I hope you know the difference now," Annabeth said.

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"That must suck," Thalia said.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. _I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"You're going to eavsdrop on them aren't you?" Haphestus asked. Everyone jumped, he had been so quiet they had forgotten he was there.

Percy smiled sheepisly.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

Everyone snorted.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"That's actually a pretty good point." Katie said.

**I inched closer.**

**"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"What's the summer solstice deadline?" Athena questioned. No one answered her.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her… ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Never ever give away your position!," Connor and Travis yelled.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good, you're quickly exiting the premesis," Hermes said. Everyone looked at him weirdly.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"That won't work, he can read your emotions." Annabeth said.

"Again, this already happened, I know," Percy said.

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"No really?" Athena said sarcastically.

"ATHENA MADE A JOKE! THE WORLD IS ENDING!" Apollo yelled.

"Shut up."

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"WHAT!" Everyone was shocked.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"You took that the wrong way didn't you?" Katie asked.

"What's the right way?" Percy replied.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland.**

**Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.**

**Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Well, that was rude," Artemis said.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Everybody cracked up.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"So pretty much eveything," Nico said.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"Why is it fancy script if they have dyslxia?" Zeus asked Mr. D.

"It's funny to watch them struggle to read it." Mr. D shrugged.

"You'll fix that," Zues ordered.

Mr.D muttered something under his breath.

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

"YOU SAW THE FATES!" Annabeth snapped

"Maybe.." Percy said, in a tone which meant Yes.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"How are you still alive?" Athena demanded. Nobody answered.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"JUST GET IN!" everyone shouted.

"Right here, you know,"Percy grumbled.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone is the room gasped (except Percy).

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Everyone was still freaking out...

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything" someone muttered.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

Thalia cringed. He still blamed himself.

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"On that depressing note, who wants to read next?" Nico said.

"I will," said Annabeth.

* * *

**I don't really have much to say. Hope you all liked it! Thank you to my editor mybffisavampirefreak. And idk what else.**

**BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE**

**~MusicLover2212**

**PS. Sorry about the problem with the bold. It's fixed now.**


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